Well, maybe that explained why the guy’s face had been used as a punching bag. And yup, if both of them lived through this, Jim so had some explaining to do.

“Are you one of them?” Isaac demanded.

Cue the Jeopardy theme as Jim looked over at his two buddies and then at Grier and her father. “After a fashion, yes. But we’re on the other side.”

Isaac shook his head and left all that for later. What was more important was the path that was being constructed by the series of events: “Matthias gets that picture and he’ll think I killed . . . him . . . it . . . whatever.”

And step two in the extrapolation? Matthias would really be gunning for him now.

“Who are you calling?” he asked as Jim put that phone up to his ear like he was making a call.

The guy mouthed, Matthias . . . and then the next thing that came out of his mouth was a curse. “Fucking voice mail.”

As the others continued talking, Isaac pulled Heron aside. “I’m ‘not the one.’ Tell me what it means.”

“We don’t have that kind of time—”

“We’ve got a minute and a half. I’ll guarantee it.”

“And that won’t cover anything at all.” Jim’s eyes bored into Isaac’s. “Do you remember what I told you when I first saw you? That I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you? I still mean it. But I have to go.”

Isaac squeezed the guy’s arm, holding him in place. “Where?”

Jim glanced at his buddies. “I’ve got to get to Matthias. I think she’s after him.”

Who was she, Isaac wondered. And then it dawned on him.

“You don’t have to go anywhere then. You want to see him?” He pulled out that Life Alert and let it dangle off its chain as he pointed to his own chest. “You have your bait right here.”

In the end, it turned out Grier needed the suitcase she’d packed.

She was going to her father’s to stay out in Lincoln for a couple of days—and Isaac and Jim were remaining behind here in her house to face that man, Matthias. Although it felt odd to be giving her family’s home over to relative strangers, the reality was that the place offered ways of exit that would make things safer for the two men.

And regardless of what she thought of them, she wasn’t going to be a party to their deaths if there was something she could do about it.

Tragically, there was no more talk about coming forward and her father had called off his contacts. Isaac wasn’t going to say a word about anything and her father didn’t know enough to do any real damage—so the risks, as balanced against the likely benefits, just couldn’t be justified.